CUA Law alumnus Brian Stolarz's, class of 1998, journey to free Alfred Dewayne Brown from death row was profiled in a Washington Post article. In the Fall of 2015, Stolarz visitied the Columbus School of Law to share the story with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the Law School during CUA Law's Family and Friends Day. Below is an excerpt from the story:

Making friends with a ‘murderer’ – and proving he’s innocentFrom: The Washington Post
Date: January 21, 2016
By: Colby Itkowitz

. . .

Theirs was a great friendship that began across a bullet-proof glass window. Brian Stolarz was a fast talking, wisecracking 33-year-old lawyer from New Jersey who’d arrived to take a case pro bono. Alfred Dewayne Brown was on death row for murdering a cop.

Brown, mild-mannered, his voice barely above a whisper, insisted he was innocent. Stolarz looked in his eyes and believed him.

“I knew it like a shot to the heart,” Stolarz recalls now. “I saw him and felt something really deep in me like when you meet your spouse for the first time or hold your kid for the first time. It’s a truth that’s deep inside you.”

So Stolarz made a promise he didn’t know if he could keep. He promised to get Brown out.
. . .